You are not like high school students, - who are using their writing to - introduce themselves to some something at a fairly basic level.

You are operating at the most sophisticated levels.

When I work with faculty on this and other campus, I am

working with people who are after all, - on the frontiers of knowledge.

.objection - they are at the frontiers of "learning" - at the edge of knowl edge

They're thinking stuff, nobody's thought before. -

This is very hard stuff.

Thinking previously unthinkable thoughts

Build tools to help us do that

you are thinking about your world -

• in very difficult ways.
• This is a terrifically good thing,

and it's the source of most of the value of your work.

do the writing to help yourself think

In other words, the thinking that you're doing is at such a level of complexity - that you have to use writing -

to help yourself do your thinking.

Unlike a journalist, almost surely - you are using your writing process - to help yourself think.

.pearl writing to think

• fundamental problem of research writing / reading

  • researchers write to think in one way
  • and read and process information in another
  • we interfere with the reading comprehension process of the reader by writing to think

• there are three reactions to reading text we do not understand

  • we reread - it slows us down
  • we don't understand
  • we feel frustrated

• a researcher writes to help the thinking process